


Something New

by rainingover



Category: K-pop, Winner (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, warnings for mentions of feelings of loneliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-03 20:55:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4114660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainingover/pseuds/rainingover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taehyun doesn't think that feeling alone actually has anything to do with the proximity of other people. </p><p>(Or: Taehyun is drinking alone and Mino just needs to get out of the rain.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something New

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the s/s 2015 Winner fic Exchange

Taehyun has been alone at the hotel bar for all of thirty minutes when he hears footsteps behind him.   
  
He turns on a fake smile, looks up to assess the person approaching -- an autograph hunter, maybe. Or an eager fan. Worst of all, it could be one of his own staff who have realised that he isn't in his hotel room getting that eight hours of sleep he promised them he would get tonight.  
  
The person with whom he is confronted is tall and tanned, and is shaking his shoulders; drops of rain water dispersing around him. He reminds Taehyun of an overgrown puppy in a commercial he saw once, back when he used to have time to watch television instead of being on it.  
  
"Is this seat taken?" The man asks, all earnest eyes and broad shoulders.  
  
Taehyun is used to being asked this question, although it's never as straight-forward as someone simply wanting to sit down. Sometimes the question means C _an I wake up next to you tomorrow?_ and sometimes it means  _I want a really great story to tell my friends over dinner next week, and talking to you could be that story._  
  
Sometimes it's a combination of the two; waking up next to someone famous always makes for a great tale, he guesses.  
  
Taehyun is used to being asked this question, just as he is used to people wanting to get close to him, spend time with him, sleep with him, whatever. Usually he replies, "Yes, it's taken. Sorry."   
  
Usually he is lying.  
  
Every so often he humours the pretty man or woman behind the question, allows them to slide onto the bar stool and flirt with him. Once in a while he lets them wake up next to him the next morning too.  
  
Taehyun tries not to think about the fact that he feels no more lonely spending his nights sitting at a bar with an empty row of seats next to him as he does when there is someone eagerly whispering compliments into his ear, or pressing themselves close to him as light flickers in through hotel room curtains.  
  
(He mentioned this to somebody once, and they'd smiled wryly and said, "You can't be lonely, you're  _Nam Taehyun_."  
  
They had never explained why, though. As if he should just  _know_. As if it was an obvious statement. And, so, Taehyun had never mentioned it again.   
  
It didn't change anything, though. He still felt the same.)  
  
The man clears his throat, and Taehyun realises that he's still waiting for an answer. Taehyun half wants to lie, but there aren't any other people at the bar, none of his staff are still awake, and it's not like the barman is going to come round and take a seat any time soon, so in the end he just shrugs. "The seat isn't taken. Sit down if you want."  
  
"Are you sure?" The man grimaces. "If you're here to be alone, I understand."  
  
Taehyun doesn't want to think about whether he's here to _be_  alone, or whether he is just being alone _here_. He shrugs again, watches the man slide onto the bar stool.   
  
He doesn't think that feeling alone actually has anything to do with the proximity of other people, anyway.

 

\--

  
Taehyun spends his life surrounded by people, but there is hardly ever an emotional connection; the people who surround him don't necessarily like him, or know him. But then they don't have to; they just have to pretend.   
  
And he pretends right back. Likes their photos on instagram, stands with them at parties, invites them to his premieres. Hears people he doesn't remember drop his name into conversations on radio and accepts it, because it's all a part of the job when you're Nam Taehyun.  
  
Nam Taehyun: the singer, the actor, fashion line designer, owner of a handsome face and hair insured for one hundred thousand dollars.   
  
Taehyun thinks he may have forgotten how to emotionally connect, or maybe it's just that he's not wanted to do so for a long time.

 

\--

 

After Song Minho ducks into the hotel bar to escape the sudden downpour outside and asks the man at the bar whether he can take a seat, he regrets it almost instantly. He feels impolite, is distracted, tired. Work has been busy and he can't remember the last time he had a good night's sleep.  
  
He's only just made it out of the rain and he's already pissed off the only other patron at the bar.   
  
"Uh-- sorry," he says, realising that his stool is weirdly close to his neighbour's. He's worried he might look kind of creepy. "Maybe I should have sat further away, actually. I'll-- I'll buy your next drink to make up for it?"  
  
Receiving his his third shrug from the man next to him, Mino wonders if asking to buy him a drink is just making things seem creepier, but he can't seem to stop pressing the subject. "Do you want the same drink again, or..?"  
  
Taehyun shakes his head. "I already bought the whole bottle of this whisky. It's behind the bar for me." He takes in the kind eyes of his new acquaintance, and feels himself softening, isn't sure why. "Do you want a glass? It's a forty year old malt and there's more than enough for two."   
  
"You don't have to. I don't want to be any trouble." Mino holds up his hands, but Taehyun calls over the barman and gestures towards him anyway. "Another glass, please. For--?" He looks over, expectantly.  
  
"Oh, Mino. I'm Mino."  
  
"Do you want a double, Mino? You look-- cold."  _And wet, and kind of cute,_ Taehyun doesn't add.  
  
"I'd love that," Mino smiles, seems to genuinely mean it. "Thankyou."  
  
And Taehyun figures that maybe he really isn't feeling as alone at the bar as he was ten minutes ago.

 

\--

 

At first, they sit in silence.  
  
It's not that Taehyun has never started a conversation before, it's just that usually other people start them first. Usually within half a second of being in front of him people launch into an interesting story, make sure they have his attention before someone else appears and poaches it, and then they just keep talking, on and on until Taehyun realises he hasn't been listening for ten minutes.  
  
So, Taehyun doesn't start a conversation, even though he realises that he wants to.   
  
"The forecast said it would stay dry tonight, but it didn't." Mino breaks the silence awkwardly, trying to explain his appearance to the stranger next to him.   
  
His wet hair is slicked back off his face and just above his eyebrow sits a rogue raindrop that Taehyun really wants to reach out and wipe away.   
  
Taehyun hasn't watched a weather forecast in years.  There are other people, people who work for him, to do that. Still, it doesn't surprise him that they're often wrong.

He takes a drink and says, "Things never turn out how you expect them to."

Mino shrugs off his damp jacket, reveals well built shoulders under a newly crumpled white shirt. "True. But that's what's so great about life." He runs his tongue over his lips, savouring the thirty year old malt that he is wondering about the price of. "Don't you agree?"  
  
"Not when you expected things to be better," Taehyun replies, wonders what is making him so honest. He settles on the alcohol being the answer, or maybe it's something in Mino's expression.   
  
"Better than  _this_?" Mino motions towards his glass of whisky. He's joking, trying to lighten the atmosphere, wearing a smile that reaches all the way to the corner's of his eyes, and Taehyun appreciates the sentiment.  
  
Replies, "I guess things aren't too bad, even if it is a really shitty, rainy night."  
  
Mino laughs, and reaches up to wipe away the raindrop that Taehyun is so fixated on. "A toast," Mino raises his glass. "to company and really great whisky."  
  
Taehyun holds his glass up too and realises with confusion that he wants to smile back at the grin on Mino's face.

 

\--

  
Taehyun smiles a lot.   
  
Sometimes he smiles for hours on end: smiling, smiling, smiling, until his face is sore and there is no feeling in his cheeks.   
  
Mostly, though, a smile is an action for a camera and not something born out of real emotion.  
  
Taehyun smiles on red carpets and in press shoots and on stage, and during the endless reshoots for that one soft drink commercial he did last Winter. He smiles during music videos, and guest appearances, and in the front row of fashion shows.   
  
He's _famous_ and famous people smile. He figures it's fifty percent of his job description. Taehyun smiles so much that he isn't sure when it's actually real anymore.   
  
He can tell that Mino's smile is real, though. Can tell from the way his eyes crinkle at the corners and his gums show for a split second, from the way his shoulders seem to visibly relax as he laughs behind his glass.  
  
(Taehyun thinks that maybe he's smiling for real as well as their toast ends and another raindrop slides from a strand of hair and back into place above Mino's eyebrow.)

 

\--

  
After the toast, Mino asks, "Why are you drinking here, if you don't mind me asking?"  
  
Taehyun contemplates an answer and decides upon, "I'm staying here tonight."  
  
"For work?"   
  
"I guess."  
  
"You're from out of town?"  
  
"Kind of..." Taehyun realises that he's being evasive.   
  
It's a natural reaction. It's useful for when you're trying to buy groceries in a pair of sunglasses and a hat, and there is a reporter at your shoulder, despite your attempt at a disguise, asking you if you're dating anyone and whether that actor you starred alongside in your last drama was as much of an ass as rumours suggest.   
  
He changes his answer. "Actually, no, I live here in the city. Most of the time."  
  
"Ah." Mino says and nods in a way that suggests he really doesn't understand at all and Taehyun realises it's harder than it really should be to just give a completely honest answer to a stranger.

He wants to give it, though, so he tries one last time. Says, "I say 'most of the time', because I have three apartments. One is in the city, the others are abroad. My apartment in the city is being decorated -- there's still smoke damage from a fire a while back, so I'm staying here tonight."  
  
It actually feels good to tell the entire truth.  
  
Mino wants to ask about the fire, and especially about the three apartments, but, as he glances at the forty year old whisk in his glass, he decides he really shouldn't be surprised about this information since the man on his right is clearly not--  _regular_ , not like him.  
  
"I just have the one apartment."  He takes a drink.   
  
"Tell me about it," Taehyun says, and Mino actually obliges him.

 

\--

 

  
They talk in circles about their current apartments, and about old apartments with leaking pipes (Mino, four years ago) and strange neighbours (Taehyun, last year).   
  
And then, about live-in-lovers who didn't ever clean the shower and live-in-lovers who turned out to be live-in-haters, who broke vases and plates and set fire to the hand-stitched Italian curtains.   
  
("That's the fire I mentioned. It made the six o clock news," Taehyun cringes after telling the whole story for the first time since it happened, and to a stranger, no less. A stranger called Mino, whose hair is now only damp and whose eyes are still smiling.)  
  
They talk about their favourite places; about how great it is to sleep in your own bed after weeks away (Taehyun) and how great it feels to go on trips away and sleep in other beds after weeks on your own lumpy mattress (Mino.)   
  
They somehow end up on the topic of their favourite foods, about whether cheese should be eaten as a dessert with wine and grapes (Taehyun says yes, Mino disagrees) and about whether a burger needs a slice of tomato on top to complete it (Taehyun says no, Mino disagrees.)  
  
As they talk, the whisky bottle atop the counter becomes emptier their stools move closer and their eyes don't leave each other.

They talk and they talk, and there is an effortlessness to the night.

 

\--

 

Mino leans across the gap between them as the conversation flows and Taehyun realises that he is eyeing the edge of his rolled up sleeve.   
  
"Is that a tattoo?" Mino says finally.   
  
Taehyun opens the button on his rolled up cuff, tugs the sleeve further up his forearm to reveal the full piece. "Yes." He holds his arm out, twists it to show the way the tattoo moves around his arm. It's an homage to one of his favourite artists, and it's definitely not subtle.   
  
Mino thinks for a while. "I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before."  
  
Taehyun has forgotten about being evasive. "It's famous," he admits.   
  
"Oh?" Mino's fingertips hover over the design, trace the shapes without touching.

Taehyun almost wishes he _was_  touching him, suddenly craves the intimacy, the truth of skin on skin. He clears his throat. "It's famous because I'm famous." He was going to say,  _in the public eye_ , but why dance around the truth when it feels so good to have an honest conversation?

"Oh, you are?" Mino replies, simply, his eyes still on Taehyun's arm, the tips of his fingers still hovering over the tattoo.  
  
"Yeah." Taehyun smiles as Mino looks up. "I got in so much trouble from my agency when I had it done. I was in the middle of a film role and the press made a big deal out of it."   
  
Mino clicks his tongue. "It's pretty big, I guess, but nothing some special effects make up stuff could cover up, right?"  
  
"Exactly." Taehyun nods. "Although-- It was in my contract not to get any tattoos during the shoot, so I was kind of in the wrong, I guess. Legally and stuff." He pulls a face as he moves his arm back and tugs down his sleeve.  
  
"Do you usually do that?" Mino looks genuinely intrigued.  
  
"What?" Taehyun asks.  
  
"Break the rules."  
  
Taehyun bites his lip. "Honestly? I'd do it more if I thought I could get away with it."  
  
"I'm pretty sure you could get away with anything," Mino says. "Aside from getting a tattoo on your forearm during a movie shoot, of course."  
  
"Actually, I got away with that in the end too."  
  
Mino is staring at him like he's trying to understand everything, trying to get inside his head, and Taehyun kind of wants him to. "That doesn't surprise me at all."  
  
Taehyun tucks his hair behind his ears and says, "Would you let me get away with whatever I wanted?"  
  
"Probably." Mino's eyes flicker between his tattoo and his face, before his gaze settles on Taehyun's playful expression. "Why? What would you want to get away with, with me?"  
  
Taehyun doesn't answer this, stares Mino down until Mino looks away first with a blush, and feels the blood inside of him, feels his own heart beating and something stirring in his stomach.  
  
He's definitely enjoying this company.   
  
"So, what kind of famous are you?" Mino asks finally, sips his drink.   
  
Taehyun has never been asked this before.   
  
He struggles to sum it up. Knows what he  _wants_  to be, but isn't sure what he really is. "I'm a singer, mainly. I act a lot these days and I-- I started a clothing line last year. Sometimes I DJ too. But, I think of myself as a singer, first and foremost."   
  
"Well, hello famous singer and sometimes other things. It's nice to meet you." The way he says it is somehow funny and alluring and totally serious all at the same time. "I can't believe no one had already come over tonight and tried to-- I don't know, chat you up or something." Mino shakes his head in disbelief.   
  
"You were the first person to enter the bar since I sat down, actually." Taehyun rests his chin on his hand. "I like this place because the staff try to keep it quiet for me when I want to drink here."   
  
"And I ruined it." Mino runs a hand over his face. "Ugh. Sorry."   
  
"Don't be. I'm glad you took this seat." Taehyun says, and realises that no matter how close physically he's been to other people lately, nothing has felt quite like _this_  for a long time. 

 

\--

 

Taehyun brushes a hand over the jacket slung over the back of Mino's stool. It's still wet around the collar, and it reminds Taehyun that there are things he wants to know about the man he's found himself opening up to tonight.   
  
He isn't sure why, because he merely feigns interest in a lot of things in his life.   
  
The last time he had a conversation he was genuinely interested in was with his cleaner, but she was cagey and suspicious and now she always leaves quickly after her shift every other morning.

He doesn't blame her.   
  
Taehyun realises that half of the people he speaks to assume he is comparing his own life to theirs, pitying them or judging them, or just asking them questions out of an attempt to appear polite.   
  
The other half, the people that truly believe that he wants to hear them speak, usually spin embellished stories, name drop and brand drop, and so the conversation is never authentic; their lives becoming a mirrored version of his own.   
  
Taehyun doesn't want embellishments.   
  
"Where had you been when you came in from the rain?" He asks.   
  
"I had to work late," Mino replies. "I work at a small marketing firm and I have a presentation in the morning, but I just couldn't get it right, so I stayed at the office until I was happy with it."   
  
Taehyun takes this in. "Will you tell me about your job? Do you have a water cooler in the office?"   
  
Mino looks like he might have gotten whiplash from this question. "You want to talk about  _office life_?" He scrunches up his nose, looks sceptical.   
  
Taehyun laughs at the face in front of him, "Come on, humour me! Do you have a water cooler?"   
  
"Okay, okay. Yeah, we do have a water cooler in the office. It's really loud and it's right next to my desk, I fucking hate it."   
  
Taehyun grins. "What about a coffee machine with really, really bad coffee in it?"   
  
Mino laughs, beginning to enjoy this exchange. " _Actually_ , I like coffee-machine coffee."   
  
"You _like_  coffee -machine coffee?"   
  
Mino crosses his arms. "After a few cups it's pretty good, there is a fine art to drinking it."   
  
"I don't believe you." Taehyun pulls a face. "But-- okay. You have a bad taste in hot drinks, I can live with that."   
  
Mino laughs. "Good. Now can I ask you a question?" He doesn't wait for an answer. Just says, "I've always been intrigued about backstage riders... What are your famous-singer demands? Like... Only red coloured candy or chocolate flown in directly from Europe?"   
  
Taehyun scoffs. "My team would  _not_  let me have candy and chocolate on my rider, no matter how much I wanted it."   
  
"Not candy then..."   
  
Taehyun says, "My only request is coffee table books. On art and photography. Just-- I like to flick through them before a show. They calm me."  
  
Mino looks impressed, or maybe unimpressed. "That's it? Just books? Nothing crazy?"   
  
"Just books and a platter fruit dipped in edible gold leaf."   
  
Mino opens his mouth, leaves it open until Taehyun rolls his eyes. "I'm joking."   
  
"Oh."   
  
"That's the rumour about me, though. That I have diva-like demands. That I'm difficult."   
  
"But really it's just books, huh?"   
  
Taehyun nods. "My turn to ask you a question again. Does everyone at your office go out drinking every Friday? All together? That always looks fun in dramas."   
  
Mino nods. "I wouldn't say it's  _fun_ , but... Yeah. We go for barbeque food and beers at this tiny place right next to the law courts every Friday. It's not very glamorous, but it tastes so good after a week of work. I guess you must get to some great celebrity parties, right?"   
  
Taehyun tilts his head. "There are parties, but-- they're always so empty. Or, they're not  _empty_ , they just make  _me_  feel empty. Does that make sense?"   
  
"I guess they feel like an obligation... Like an extension of work?"   
  
"I guess they do." Taehyun agrees. "Maybe I'll come out for barbeque and beers one Friday instead."   
  
"I'd like that."   
  
"You could come to one of the celebrity parties in return," Taehyun offers, but Mino shakes his head.   
  
"I'd make a terrible celebrity. I hate too much attention, drama and all that."   
  
"Fair enough." Taehyun accepts this. "Barbeque and beers next to the law courts on a Friday it is, then." 

 

\--

  
Taehyun excuses himself to go to the bathroom, checks his phone and finds six missed calls from his agent and three from his stylist. He doesn't return them, switches his phone off instead.   
  
When he returns Mino is sliding his own phone into his pocket. He looks bashful as he says, "Your name is Nam Taehyun?"   
  
"Yeah..." Taehyun narrows his eyes. "Wait-- Did you look me up on the internet when I was at the bathroom?"   
  
"Why? You mean you didn't you search for me?" Mino feigns offence. "If you must know, I searched for singers with famous tattoos whose expensive curtains got burnt last year. It was an interesting search term. You know, I think my sister has all of your albums. She left one in my car once."   
  
Taehyun cringes. " _All_  of my albums? Even the Christmas album?"   
  
Mino nods.   
  
"Ugh. That was--- that was  _so_ bad." Taehyun hides his face behind his hands, has never cared about how well received his music is by critics or the general public, but he has this feeling like he doesn't want to disappoint the man in front of him. "Don't listen to that one, please."   
  
Mino reaches out to pull Taehyun's hands from his face. Says, "How can an album of Christmas songs be bad? It's a time for joy!"   
  
"I don't know, but it is. It's  _so_ bad." Taehyun insists, as Mino gently holds his arm against the bar, his fingers ghosting over his wrist.   
  
Mino says, "Sing something. I want to hear your voice."   
  
Taehyun shakes his head. "No."   
  
"Go on... Sing the bar menu."   
  
"No! No. I'll sing for you another time, though." Taehyun watches Mino's fingers as they move towards his tattoo again.   
  
"Okay. Another time," Mino agrees and in that moment Taehyun really genuinely wants another time to come around. 

 

\--

  
The whisky bottle on the bar is almost empty when Mino takes a breath and says, "I guessed you were either rich or famous when I first sat down tonight. I felt so dumb for sitting next to you."   
  
Taehyun leans forward on his elbows. "How did you know I was famous? I thought you had to search me online?"   
  
"I didn't know  _who_  you were. I just--- You have this look in your eyes, like you think something is missing but you can't imagine what it could be. Like you feel guilty for not feeling happy."   
  
"Oh." No one has ever seen this truth in him before. Taehyun feels vulnerable, but it doesn't seem like a bad thing right now, not here, with Mino.   
  
Mino goes on, "Also you're really,  _really_  fucking hot. Like celebrities are meant to be. Like an old fashioned movie star."   
  
Taehyun says, "You haven't seen me in the mornings."   
  
"It's two am, so it's technically morning now, and you look amazing. Hey-- maybe you should come with me to my big presentation tomorrow; distract the panel from the fact I've got half of the presentation written on the back of my hand."   
  
"Distract them with what?"   
  
"Your sexiness."   
  
"Are you saying I'm sexy?" Taehyun tucks his hair behind his ear and smirks.   
  
"Is that what you'd like me to be saying?" Mino asks.   
  
"Only if you mean it," Taehyun says, honestly.   
  
"I don't say things that I don't mean," Mino replies, holds his gaze, until Taehyun decides that they can't flirt at the bar forever. That something has to _happen_.  
  
"I'm going to go to the bathroom," he says, pushes back his stool and stands up. "And when I get back you'll have finished your drink and be waiting at the elevator for me-- if you want to. If not, if I'm imagining that this is what you want as well, just stay here, finish the bottle of whisky. I won't be offended. Okay?"   
  
Mino catches his arm as he starts to turn away. Says, "Do you actually  _need_  the bathroom?"   
  
"Well, no, but---" Taehyun wasn't expecting this.   
  
"Good." Mino tips back his glass, brings it back down to the bar and stands up. Pulls his jacket off of the back of his stool, pats his left pocket to check his keys are still there and looks up.   
  
Takes in Taehyun's furrowed brow, the slope of his nose, the way his hair falls against the side of his face. Suddenly feels self conscious.   
  
"Wait-- you... You didn't say that about the bathroom so you could slip out of a back door or something, right? I haven't just really fucking embarrassed myself have I? Because-- I get it, I'm just _me_  and you're  _you_  and--"  
  
Taehyun interrupts Mino's momentary panic. "No, I really want you to come up to my room."   
  
Mino grins with relief. "Good, because I really want that too." 

 

\--

  
When they exit the elevator on the top floor, Mino realises that the floor is exclusively Taehyun's.   
  
He hovers behind him at the entrance to the suite, waits as Taehyun presses his keycard against the door, taps a code into the keypad above it.   
  
"You want to know what I thought when I first saw you tonight?" Taehyun says, as the door opens. "I thought you might be an autograph hunter, or something. When you asked whether the seat next to me was free I almost lied. I was kind of pissed off."   
  
They're holding hands as Taehyun leads him into the suite, though Mino can't remember how or when this happened; their fingers lazily entwined, the most natural thing in the world. "I could tell. It was so awkward, I almost left."   
  
Taehyun turns to face him and, looks up from underneath long eyelashes. "I'm glad that you didn't." He lets go of Mino's hand and traces his shirt collar with his fingers.   
  
Mino exhales a breath and inches closer, and Taehyun feels the electricity between them. Knows this is a cliché, but doesn't care, because it's _there_. And maybe Mino feels it too, as he reaches up to brush the hair from Taehyun's eyes, cups a hand around his face and pulls him into a kiss; slow and deep and  _real_.  
  
Taehyun feels dizzy as Mino's teeth graze his bottom lip. He works on Mino's half-buttoned shirt, finds a tattoo of his own on his chest and murmurs in appreciation as he runs his fingers across Mino's hot skin.   
  
They make it to the bed and sink into the sheets with a little grace and a lot of want. Taehyun catches a glimpse of a stack of albums on the cabinet next to the bed, albums he should have signed before he caught that eight hours of sleep he promised, but he forgets them as soon as Mino slides a hand under his waistband.   
  
Forgets the albums, forgets the sleep, forgets loneliness, and kisses Mino hard. 

 

\--

 

In the past, when Taehyun has heard the words "Is this seat taken?" they have often meant  _Can I wake up next to you tomorrow?_  but, when Taehyun wakes up the next morning to the sound of rain against his window, he is alone. 

There's a note on the pillow next to him. A biro scrawl that reads, "Presentation time! You looked too peaceful to wake up. Call me if you want, no pressure." The flipside of the note contains a phone number, and a single 'x'.   
  
Taehyun isn't used to the feeling of disappointment he feels at the empty space next to him. "No pressure," the note says, but this is a too new and too much, because Taehyun has never _wanted_ to call anyone after a one night stand, has never hoped the person hadn't left.   
  
The pressure he isn't meant to feel builds and builds inside of him, and Taehyun doesn't call the number.   
  
He _intends_ to dial it, he saves it in his phone, pulls it up on his screen three times a day, but then he's busy pretending to smile for cameras, and making excuses, and telling himself that there is no possible way that Mino could want to see him again. He'd said himself that he wouldn't want to be famous, that he wouldn't be interested in attention or drama. Things that Taehyun lives his life alongside.

Things that  _are_  his life.   
  
So, no matter how much he thinks about doing so, Taehyun doesn't call. 

 

\--

  
Mino stays in after work most nights.   
  
He checks his phone for missed calls more times a day than he'd like to admit, but he isn't even sure why he is expecting there to be any, why Taehyun would ever want to see him: The guy who likes cheap coffee and can't even remember to take an umbrella out when he leaves work in a rainstorm.   
  
He turns on the television and can't bring himself to turn it off again when Nam Taehyun's face fills the screen. Watches sixty two minutes of a movie about vampires living during the Goryeo Dynasty. Only turns it off again once Taehyun's character is locked out in the sun to perish.   
  
Mino realises he's actually really into the movie as the vampire's body turns to dust and he curses Nam Taehyun's acting, his face and the fact that he makes a stupidly hot vampire, as he flicks through other channels.   
  
An advert for Taehyun's fragrance comes on in between an advert for whisky and another for an art exhibition on next month, and Mino wonders if the universe is fucking with him, or whether he might just be stuck in a loop, being reminded of that one night forever.   
  
When Mino dreams that night he dreams of hotel lobbies and hotel elevators and hot breath against his ear.   
  
He checks his phone the next morning, just in case, but no calls have been missed and Nam Taehyun remains a story he could tell people at dinner parties, but doesn't want to.

He keeps it to himself, deletes the vampire movie from his VCR, and accepts reality. 

 

\--

 

Mino drags himself out of his slump to meet his sister for lunch the next weekend. Sits down at their table, and frowns as she orders just a drink from the waitress. 

"I can't eat, I'm too excited. No,  _nervous_ ," she says, as he fusses over her lack of food.   
  
"Why?"   
  
"I need to be online in forty minutes to buy tickets." She looks like she means business as she leans forward. "And they  _have_  to be near the front of the arena."   
  
"Tickets for what?" Mino tucks into his food.   
  
"A concert, of course." Danah sighs. "It's his first arena tour in three years; he's been acting a lot. We're all very excited."   
  
Mino has no idea who the 'we' in this sentence are meant to be. He tucks into his lunch, says between mouthfuls, "Which of your five thousand pop-star crushes is doing a show this time?   
  
Danah ignores her elder brother's teasing tone. Says, "Nam - _Freaking_ \- Taehyun, that's who."   
  
Mino feels winded at the mention of Taehyun's name. "He's-- um, I've heard of him, yeah. He's a singer, right?" He rambles.   
  
"You've heard of him?" Danah does not look convinced.   
  
"Sure, I have. I like his Christmas album," Mino lies.   
  
He realises this was a mistake when Danah retorts that, " _No one_  likes his Christmas album." She looks as though she wants to press the subject, but changes her mind. Says, "You're always telling me I should support local businesses, and he's from the city, so you should be proud that I'm putting money back into someone local."   
  
Mino smiles. "When I talk about supporting local business, I mean like the small firm I work for, or the shop at the corner of our parent's street, I don't mean super rich celebrities who have three apartments and a taste for really expensive whisky," he says. Realises he probably shouldn't know these things.   
  
"You really  _do_  like his Christmas album, huh?" Danah raises her eyebrows. "Anyway, you're not coming to the show with me, so don't get any ideas."   
  
Mino laughs, although he has to admit that the thought may have passed his mind, if only fleetingly.   
  
Taehyun did promise he'd hear him sing another time, after all. 

 

\--

 

Taehyun is faking a smile for an interview in his dressing room. 

He sips on a coffee that tastes like it may have come out of a crappy coffee machine. It makes him think of Mino when he tastes it, so he throws it into the trash can beside him, just in case thoughts of Mino accidentally distract him from evading the intimate questions the journalist is asking him.   
  
"Let's talk about dating." The journalist taps his pen against his notepad. "It must be hard for you to find someone to trust, being who you are."   
  
"Hmmm." Taehyun still tastes the coffee on his lips.   
  
"How do you find people to date?" The journalist presses on.   
  
Taehyun runs a hand through his hair, spots his stylist flinching from her spot near the door and realises he's just messed up thirty minutes of her work. He crosses his hands tightly in his lap. "I don't have time for dating, really."   
  
"You've had high profile relationships in the past, though..."   
  
"I have," Taehyun continues to smile. Wonders when the interview will end. He can still taste the coffee, is thinking about water coolers and whether a certain presentation went well.   
  
Is brought back into the room as he is asked, " Why do you think you haven't been able to find anyone to settle down with yet?"   
  
Taehyun evades the question. Says, "I'm concentrating on my tour right now," and smiles even wider.   
  
The journalist doesn't buy this answer. Wants something juicy, wants a quote that can sit front and centre on a magazine cover. And what is juicier than a celebrity with a really shitty personal life?

"Of course, there are rumours that you're difficult to be with. Is it true?"   
  
"As I said, I'm concentrating on my--"  
  
Th journalist cuts in, "It is known that you don't trust easily, especially after the famous incident with the fire in your apartment. Do you plan on being alone forever?" He is tapping his pen against his notepad, hoping for some emotion to pour out of his subject.   
  
But Taehyun is good at evading questions, just as he has always been good at faking a smile.   
  
"I'm concentrating on my tour right now," Taehyun repeats brightly, even as he digs his fingernails into his thighs through his jeans to channel the annoyance.

Stands up and says, "I'm very sorry, but I'm going to have to rehearse now. This interview is over." 

 

\--

  
Taehyun rehearses and rehearses and won't take a break even when his eyes are blurred and his hair is sticking to the back of his neck, sweat running down his cheeks.   
  
It's four am when he returns to his apartment that night. The curtains are back, restored to their former glory, no smoke damage in sight.   
  
He opens them, stares out at the city and takes out his phone; thumb hovering over Mino's number.

The interviewer was right, of course, Taehyun thinks; everything he said rang true. And Mino had said he wasn't cut out for celebrity life, that he wouldn't like the drama. It wouldn't be fair to call him.   
  
He deletes Mino's number and closes the curtains. 

 

\--

 

Mino finds that he sometimes misses the hum of the water cooler.   
  
Last month, when he'd given his presentation still wearing last night's suit, still high on the night before, he had somehow managed to impress the board, and with promotion had come a new desk on the other side of the office.   
  
He sips from a paper cup of cheap coffee, overhears two female colleagues at the coffee machine talking about Nam Taehyun's upcoming homecoming shows.   
  
Thinks it funny that before a name means something to you, you can live your entire life never registering it, even when it's on the page of a magazine in front of you, or on a subway ad you glance at every day.   
  
Even when your sister is turning the volume of a CD up way too loud in your car and telling you with glee about their last interview.   
  
But once a name  _means_ something, once it reminds you of the press of someone's lips, of the excitement of meeting for the first time and just _knowing_  this is meant to be the first of many nights, the name is everywhere, inescapable, all the time.   
  
Mino makes plans to drown out the name with beer and cheap food every Friday for the foreseeable future. 

 

\--

 

Taehyun is glad to be touring again.   
  
It gives him no time to really, truly think of, well, anything at all. He performs, he smiles, he feigns interest in people at backstage parties, he sleeps and then repeats this, every day for four weeks.   
  
His tour ends with a four show stint in his home city. He's glad to hear that the show is well received, hears rumours of good things for the next awards season; receives three scripts on his agent's desk for upcoming dramas.   
  
Things are going well, on the surface at least.   
  
A whisky brand throws a homecoming party in his honour. It's a Friday night, still early as people swarm the venue, hoping to see and be seen, to drink for free and to drink up his attention. A man wearing heavy eyeliner corners him at the bar, asks if the seat next to him is taken. 

Taehyun realises that he could slip into his usual routine, let old habits die hard and give the guy something to tell his friends about, give himself a distraction from the fact that he doesn't know the name of anyone in the room.   
  
Or, he could start something new, something he should have started on a rainy night over a month ago.   
  
"Actually, my seat is free too." Taehyun stands up, presses his half finished glass of alcohol into the man's hand, and doesn't look back. Pushes his way through the crowd of people who may or may not like him, slips out of the back door and past his own driver.

He flags down a cab and asks to be taken to the law courts, where Taehyun steps out into darkness and wonders if he's at the right place, since he can't see any sign of a restaurant or bar, just shut up buildings and a gathering of teenagers across the court-yard.   
  
He is about to give up and leave when he hears a roar of laughter from an open window around a corner. The sort of roar of laughter that signals sheer relief at the end of a working week.   
  
Following the noise, the place he finds is tiny, grimy and dark. It's nine thirty and the restaurant is packed with suits and ties, the smell of really cheap food and people who just want to let loose, at least until their desks call them again on Monday morning.   
  
Only a few people look up as he enters and hovers at the door as he searches for a familiar face.   
  
He spots Mino on the edge of a large group, deep in conversation with a man with dishevelled hair and a beer in each hand.   
  
Taehyun wonders if this is all one huge mistake, contemplates leaving, heading back to the whisky and the eyeliner and the numb feeling in his chest. But, then, Mino looks up, recognition flooding his eyes. A crooked grin, as if he can't quite believe what he's seeing.   
  
Mino pushes back his chair, walks over. People are starting to notice him now, but Taehyun doesn't care.   
  
"I was hoping you'd be here," Taehyun says, as Mino approaches.   
  
"Well it  _is_  a Friday," Mino replies. He can't help but let a smile take over his whole face as he takes in the fact that Nam Taehyun is  _here_ , at his local dive bar, for beer & barbeque Friday in a jacket that probably cost more than the restaurant takes in earnings in a month.   
  
"I was going to take the seat next to you when I came in, but there wasn't one free."   
  
Mino says, "If you sit on my lap in here we might attract too much attention."   
  
"Oh, you think?" Taehyun thinks, deep down, that he probably wouldn't care. He kind of wants to sit on Mino's lap. He wants to do a lot of things with Mino.   
  
Mino tugs at his tie, loosens it a little. It's hot in the restaurant, and he's been up since six am. Plus, the man he thought he might have imagined falling asleep underneath is standing in front of him talking about sitting on his knee.

"You didn't call." He decides to bring it up; decides he has nothing to lose now, since Taehyun is here.   
  
"Yeah... About that," Taehyun bites his lip. Tells the truth. "I deleted your number, actually. I was so used to feeling alone, I thought that maybe I wanted to be, deep down. That it was all I could ever be."   
  
Mino takes this in. "And what do you think now?"   
  
"That... I want to try something new."   
  
Mino gestures towards the bar. "Do you want a drink? It's not-- I can't afford what we drank last time."   
  
"I'd actually like a really watery, cheap beer."   
  
"I can definitely afford that." Mino grins, leads the way to the bar.

Taehyun knows he looks completely out of place, but he doesn't feel it. Feels right, here, next to Mino.   
  
Mino passes him a drink, and Taehyun takes this is a chance to fill in all of the gaps he's left to grow between them. "How did that big presentation go?" He takes a swig of the beer. It's watery and it's warm, but it's good.   
  
"I'll put it this way-- I don't sit next to the water cooler anymore." Mino looks pleased. "How was your, um, massive, really expensive, world tour?" _  
  
_ "It was good to be on stage again," Taehyun replies. It had been a relief after three years away from touring to know that he really is still a singer. "And I actually added something to my backstage rider for this tour."   
  
"Oh?"   
  
"I asked for a coffee machine. You're right, it's usually kind of delicious by about the fourth cup."   
  
"I told you so." Mino laughs, and Taehyun wishes he could watch him laugh forever. Thinks, maybe he can now.   
  
"The coffee at my apartment is still better, though." he says, pointedly.   
  
"Is that right?" Mino takes a drink. "I guess I'll have to try it sometime."   
  
"Hmmm. What about when we wake up tomorrow morning?" Taehyun could definitely get used to flirting with Mino on a daily basis.   
  
Mino raises an eyebrow with a smirk, and then raises his beer. Says, "To company, and to the really great coffee we'll drink tomorrow."   
  
Taehyun raises his glass and smiles, and it's one so real that he can feel it throughout his whole body.


End file.
